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The Voices Of Time and other stories
Susan Sontag, Anthony Burgess, Graham Greene, William Burroughs, Robert Nye and Angela Carter are among the host of admirers of J. G. Ballard's fiction. His extraordinary inventiveness and the unfailing grace and energy of his writing are triumphantly displayed in this classic collection of stories, which includes 'The Overloaded Man', 'Chronopolis' and 'The Garden of Time', which Anthony Burgess called 'one of the most beautiful stories of the world canon of short fiction'.
These haunting tales of pity and terror and longing, firmly grounded in psychological realism and tightly plotted, transcend classification as fantasy or science fiction; they are literature of the highest order. (Jacket description)
These haunting tales of pity and terror and longing, firmly grounded in psychological realism and tightly plotted, transcend classification as fantasy or science fiction; they are literature of the highest order. (Jacket description)
158 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1962
About the author
J.G. Ballard
411 books3,847 followersJames Graham "J. G." Ballard (15 November 1930 – 19 April 2009) was an English novelist, short story writer, and essayist. Ballard came to be associated with the New Wave of science fiction early in his career with apocalyptic (or post-apocalyptic) novels such as The Drowned World (1962), The Burning World (1964), and The Crystal World (1966). In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ballard focused on an eclectic variety of short stories (or "condensed novels") such as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970), which drew closer comparison with the work of postmodernist writers such as William S. Burroughs. In 1973 the highly controversial novel Crash was published, a story about symphorophilia and car crash fetishism; the protagonist becomes sexually aroused by staging and participating in real car crashes. The story was later adapted into a film of the same name by Canadian director David Cronenberg.
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
While many of Ballard's stories are thematically and narratively unusual, he is perhaps best known for his relatively conventional war novel, Empire of the Sun (1984), a semi-autobiographical account of a young boy's experiences in Shanghai during the Second Sino-Japanese War as it came to be occupied by the Japanese Imperial Army. Described as "The best British novel about the Second World War" by The Guardian, the story was adapted into a 1987 film by Steven Spielberg.
The literary distinctiveness of Ballard's work has given rise to the adjective "Ballardian", defined by the Collins English Dictionary as "resembling or suggestive of the conditions described in J. G. Ballard's novels and stories, especially dystopian modernity, bleak man-made landscapes and the psychological effects of technological, social or environmental developments." The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography entry describes Ballard's work as being occupied with "eros, thanatos, mass media and emergent technologies".
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 39 reviews
May 15, 2019
Ballard me está fascinando. Esos paisajes ambientados en futuros desolados, narrados de una manera tan clara y poética, dejan huella.
Estos son los ocho relatos incluidos en ‘Las voces del tiempo’, en la edición de Minotauro de 1992. (Existe otra edición de 1978 con el mismo título, en la que solo coinciden tres cuentos.)
-Las voces del tiempo.
-El barrendero de sonidos.
-El hombre sobrecargado.
-Trece a Centauro.
-El jardín del tiempo.
-La jaula de arena.
-Las torres de observación.
-Cronópolis.
Todos los relatos son magníficos, pero por encima de los demás, destacaría ‘El jardín del tiempo’, mi favorito, y ‘Las voces del tiempo’.
Estos son los ocho relatos incluidos en ‘Las voces del tiempo’, en la edición de Minotauro de 1992. (Existe otra edición de 1978 con el mismo título, en la que solo coinciden tres cuentos.)
-Las voces del tiempo.
-El barrendero de sonidos.
-El hombre sobrecargado.
-Trece a Centauro.
-El jardín del tiempo.
-La jaula de arena.
-Las torres de observación.
-Cronópolis.
Todos los relatos son magníficos, pero por encima de los demás, destacaría ‘El jardín del tiempo’, mi favorito, y ‘Las voces del tiempo’.
May 18, 2019
En mi afán completista, tenía que leer el resto de cuentos que no aparecían en la edición de Minotauro de 1992. Ambas ediciones solo tienen tres relatos en común: ‘Las voces del tiempo’ (increíble relato, de lo mejor que he leído últimamente), ‘El barrendero de sonidos’ (que gran idea para un relato) y ‘El hombre sobrecargado’.
Estos son los cuatro cuentos diferentes para esta edición:
-Zona de terror. Larsen está en una zona de retiro, en pleno desierto, en una urbanización donde solo están él y un psicólogo. La idea es la de la empresa de Larsen, para darle un respiro. Pero de repente empieza a tener alucinaciones.
-Nicho 69. Donde se experimenta con tres pacientes la necesidad de dormir.
-Zona de espera. El protagonista se traslada a Murak, en otro planeta, para trabajar en el observatorio. Va a estar dos años, sustituyendo a su predecesor, que en principio iba estar el mismo tiempo, y ya lleva quince años allí. Por qué, se preguntará.
-Ocaso. Ya apenas queda gente en la Tierra. La explotación del planeta ha eliminado, literalmente, incluso los océanos.
Nuevamente, he quedado fascinado por la imaginación y la puesta en escena de estas historias, además de por la forma de escribir de Ballard.
Estos son los cuatro cuentos diferentes para esta edición:
-Zona de terror. Larsen está en una zona de retiro, en pleno desierto, en una urbanización donde solo están él y un psicólogo. La idea es la de la empresa de Larsen, para darle un respiro. Pero de repente empieza a tener alucinaciones.
-Nicho 69. Donde se experimenta con tres pacientes la necesidad de dormir.
-Zona de espera. El protagonista se traslada a Murak, en otro planeta, para trabajar en el observatorio. Va a estar dos años, sustituyendo a su predecesor, que en principio iba estar el mismo tiempo, y ya lleva quince años allí. Por qué, se preguntará.
-Ocaso. Ya apenas queda gente en la Tierra. La explotación del planeta ha eliminado, literalmente, incluso los océanos.
Nuevamente, he quedado fascinado por la imaginación y la puesta en escena de estas historias, además de por la forma de escribir de Ballard.
July 13, 2022
After many novels I've finally got around to trying some of Ballard's short fiction. There are many writers that juggle novels and short stories, but there are few who can pull off being great at both. This collection contains eight stories - The Voices of Time, The Sound-Sweep, The Overloaded man, Thirteen to Centaurus, The Garden of Time, The Cage of Sand, The Watch Towers & Chronopolis - and most of them were really impressive on the eye. Ballard was a writer that I found to be a difficult nut to crack at first, but over the years he has gone on to become my favourite British writer. I've never really been a big fan of sci-fi in general, but Ballard is one exception, and this collection left me wanting more. His ingenuity was a class above.
June 4, 2013
It's a tribute to both the nature and scope of Ballard's imagination that this 1964 collection of stories has scarcely aged at all. The technological barely concerns him, only intruding into his narratives as a part of the fabric of life. Where it is central, as with the capture of embedded sound in 'The Sound Sweep', it's often so bizarre as to be completely original. But what really seems to motivate Ballard is mood. Again and again he returns to the same haunting images, like a vulture circling the carcass of his unconscious. Abandoned cityscapes recur constantly, a recapitulation perhaps of his boyhood experiences of an evacuated Shanghai. It makes for an eerie body of fiction that I find irresistible.
The most notable stories in this collection are 'The Overloaded Man', a frightening study of the nature of perception, and 'The Garden of Time', a tale of decline and fall that is simple and momentous enough to achieve mythic status.
The most notable stories in this collection are 'The Overloaded Man', a frightening study of the nature of perception, and 'The Garden of Time', a tale of decline and fall that is simple and momentous enough to achieve mythic status.
September 25, 2008
I loved these short stories- so vivid and the imagery haunts me occasionally still. The "Garden of Time" story in particular filled me with irreconcilable pathos. I wonder why I have not gotten around to reading more Ballard?
May 28, 2017
Not a ton to say on this one. The thing is, because Ballard is such an intense writer, I had trouble going directly from one story to the next -- which is great. Except that I never really felt an actual pull to go back to the next one, so it took me awhile to get through and nothing realllly stuck.
But anyway -- some really solid stories ("The Voices of Time", "The Watch Towers", and "Chronopolis" were my faves), and not a single bad one ---- just no real standouts. Still worth the read!
But anyway -- some really solid stories ("The Voices of Time", "The Watch Towers", and "Chronopolis" were my faves), and not a single bad one ---- just no real standouts. Still worth the read!
July 2, 2012
Think this was the first short story collection I read by Ballard.
I never quite know how to describe him but 'weird' and 'wonderful' are always in the list of adjectives.
I never quite know how to describe him but 'weird' and 'wonderful' are always in the list of adjectives.
April 26, 2023
Every year I discover interesting new authors, but usually they're contemporary. J.G. Ballard was writing in the 1960s, and apparently wrote quite a lot, but I didn't run across his name until browsing a couple weeks ago in a funky bookstore in downtown Los Angeles.
This is a collection of sci-fi stories, but they're not what I would call mainstream sci-fi. On the positive side of the ledger, their premises are all very original. (One of the more interesting stories, "Thirteen to Centaurus," is quite similar to the Konstance portion of Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land—but this was published first. "The Sound Sweep" in particular has a novel concept that I won't forget.
But some of these stories suffer, in my opinion, from both incoherence and a pessimistic or even nihilistic viewpoint. In each story, the universe is winding down or entropy is increasing, or seemingly idyllic situations are coming to an end, often just as the inevitable consequence of time. Eventually, everything turns to merde. From the write-up about him on Goodreads, it sounds like that melancholy viewpoint may have been Ballard's specialty.
I may not prefer that kind of outlook, but it's not a show-stopper. A bigger difficulty for me was simply understanding why events turn out as they do. "The Garden of Time" is easier to understand than most. I see the rampaging hordes descending on the villa as a metaphor for the fact that, as Paul Simon put it, "everything put together sooner or later falls apart." Maybe the magical flowers, which push those invaders back by ever-decreasing amounts, represent interventions such as, say, medicine, which can perhaps delay death but only for so long. Maybe the transformation of Axel and the Countess into statues, protected by bramble, is a statement about the obscurity of history. That one is more accessible to me because it's in the form of a myth. In other stories I hardly know how to formulate my questions. In "The Overloaded Man," for example, what kind of statement is being made in the main character's conscious decision to deconstruct everything? He didn't like his job or his surroundings, and so he himself becomes the agent of destruction?
Another story that I rather liked is "The Watch-Towers." Kafka could have done something with that idea, or maybe Rod Serling, and what we have is comparable to what either of them might have done. (This is actually the story that seems most relevant to today's current events.)
I'll take the blame for not appreciating this collection more, because apparently some respectable literary people do admire it very much.
This is a collection of sci-fi stories, but they're not what I would call mainstream sci-fi. On the positive side of the ledger, their premises are all very original. (One of the more interesting stories, "Thirteen to Centaurus," is quite similar to the Konstance portion of Anthony Doerr's Cloud Cuckoo Land—but this was published first. "The Sound Sweep" in particular has a novel concept that I won't forget.
But some of these stories suffer, in my opinion, from both incoherence and a pessimistic or even nihilistic viewpoint. In each story, the universe is winding down or entropy is increasing, or seemingly idyllic situations are coming to an end, often just as the inevitable consequence of time. Eventually, everything turns to merde. From the write-up about him on Goodreads, it sounds like that melancholy viewpoint may have been Ballard's specialty.
I may not prefer that kind of outlook, but it's not a show-stopper. A bigger difficulty for me was simply understanding why events turn out as they do. "The Garden of Time" is easier to understand than most. I see the rampaging hordes descending on the villa as a metaphor for the fact that, as Paul Simon put it, "everything put together sooner or later falls apart." Maybe the magical flowers, which push those invaders back by ever-decreasing amounts, represent interventions such as, say, medicine, which can perhaps delay death but only for so long. Maybe the transformation of Axel and the Countess into statues, protected by bramble, is a statement about the obscurity of history. That one is more accessible to me because it's in the form of a myth. In other stories I hardly know how to formulate my questions. In "The Overloaded Man," for example, what kind of statement is being made in the main character's conscious decision to deconstruct everything? He didn't like his job or his surroundings, and so he himself becomes the agent of destruction?
Another story that I rather liked is "The Watch-Towers." Kafka could have done something with that idea, or maybe Rod Serling, and what we have is comparable to what either of them might have done. (This is actually the story that seems most relevant to today's current events.)
I'll take the blame for not appreciating this collection more, because apparently some respectable literary people do admire it very much.
April 18, 2021
Not a collection to read while experiencing insomnia. Most of the stories have to do with trying to maintain, or find, sanity, or identity, while experiencing time passing differently, or sleep patterns being disrupted... or all of the above. I finished it in one night because I couldn't sleep.
Now, you might think that I rated it low because it had a negative impact on me personally. But I rated it low because it's dated, mushy, and written in a way that comes off as a lame attempt at being literary & brilliant. One could argue there was "What If" but there was certainly, imo, no "Sense of Wonder."
Now, you might think that I rated it low because it had a negative impact on me personally. But I rated it low because it's dated, mushy, and written in a way that comes off as a lame attempt at being literary & brilliant. One could argue there was "What If" but there was certainly, imo, no "Sense of Wonder."
March 12, 2013
A rather unequal collection of stories involving time travel. The one that made the best impression was about an apparatus called a 'Sonovac'. In the near future, people only listen to ultra and subsonic music. Normal sound residues are cleaned away out of buildings, like dust. A professional sound cleaner wants to re-launch the career of an opera diva, who has sunk into oblivion after the disappearance of audible music. She hardly deserves it, beacause she has a horrible character that resembles the actress from Sunset Boulevard. In the end, the young man uses his abilities to pay her back for her arrogance.
April 9, 2015
Another magnificent collection of perception-altering weirdness by one of the finest author's the United Kingdom has ever produced. 'The Voices of Time' not only reaches the same vertiginous heights of excellence that his 'Terminal Beach' achieved, but, somehow their reach is somewhat higher; not only are these finely wrought tales hugely engrossing, they are also profoundly inspirational; truly, J.G Ballard's tremendous talent was a greatly rewarding gift for all lovers of superlative thinking!
January 28, 2021
Superb collection of early Ballard stories, the title story alone perhaps making a claim for the most 'Ballardian' of any short story the man wrote (written almost at the start of his career). The lure of drained swimming pools, dead astronauts and strange desert-scapes was there right from the get-go. The stories range from surreal and poetic ('The Garden of Time') to tightly plotted and concise ('Chronopolis'). Great Ballard starter pack.
February 6, 2022
10/10 concepts rily cool stuff, happy to find a new writer and excited for more
It ALSO reminded me of a lot of early
Cronenberg movies like 🪱shiver, kinda like these sci fi bio-horror thrillers set in remote American 🏔landscapes in which beautiful scientists live in lavish modernist homes and act more like celebrity philosophers than biologists. Very A24 vibes, and a really cool setting for short stories 🐸🧪🏠⭐️🦑🪞👩🏾🔬
It ALSO reminded me of a lot of early
Cronenberg movies like 🪱shiver, kinda like these sci fi bio-horror thrillers set in remote American 🏔landscapes in which beautiful scientists live in lavish modernist homes and act more like celebrity philosophers than biologists. Very A24 vibes, and a really cool setting for short stories 🐸🧪🏠⭐️🦑🪞👩🏾🔬
August 19, 2008
The best prose in science fiction you can wish for. The happenings constitute a different world where people are still trying to adapt. The book lost me here and there but then, a great idea or a good ending shook me and prepared me to go on to the next tale.
September 9, 2014
I'm not much of Sci Fi fan, but I am glad this was recommended by a friend. Ballard had my attention from page one. There wasn't too much of the over used science vocabulary about space ships and all that turns me away from other SF works. I love the suspense stories especially.
June 10, 2008
yes, i am reading two of his books at the same time. so what, ya wanna fightaboutit??
May 2, 2021
Coming across a drained swimming pool in the title story of this early collection I wondered whether it might be the first of many, many appearances of this image throughout the author’s work. A little light Googling told me that not only is this the case, but that in 1977 Ballard pointed to the story as a kind of Rosetta Stone for his unique worldview: “If I were asked to pick one piece of fiction to represent my entire output of 7 novels and 92 short stories it would be ‘The Voices of Time’, not because it is the best (I leave that for the reader to judge), but because it contains almost all the themes of my writing — the sense of isolation within the infinite time and space of the universe, the biological fantasies and the attempt to read the complex codes represented by drained swimming pools and abandoned airfields, and above all the determination to break out of a deepening psychological entropy and make some kind of private peace with the unseen powers of the universe.” It is indeed a powerful, disturbing and enigmatic work. The universe is winding down. People's lives are becoming consumed by sleep. Animals are speciating into new and bizarre forms. An inner logic is at work which determinedly remains just beyond the reader’s understanding.
The rest of the collection is a mixed bag. ‘Thirteen to Centaurus’ is closer in style to the science fiction found in the periodicals of the time, a predictable story of heuristic education in space, where the characters exist mainly to explain the plot to one another. ‘The Watch Towers’ and ‘Chronopolis’ might have been lifted from The Twilight Zone (the latter story concerns a world where timepieces have been outlawed). Only a few look forward to the deeply weird and intellectual novels that were to come. ‘The Cage of Sand’ in particular gives fans of the fully-developed Ballard a bit of what they might fancy: surreal landscapes, strange compulsions, fatalism and dead astronauts.
The rest of the collection is a mixed bag. ‘Thirteen to Centaurus’ is closer in style to the science fiction found in the periodicals of the time, a predictable story of heuristic education in space, where the characters exist mainly to explain the plot to one another. ‘The Watch Towers’ and ‘Chronopolis’ might have been lifted from The Twilight Zone (the latter story concerns a world where timepieces have been outlawed). Only a few look forward to the deeply weird and intellectual novels that were to come. ‘The Cage of Sand’ in particular gives fans of the fully-developed Ballard a bit of what they might fancy: surreal landscapes, strange compulsions, fatalism and dead astronauts.
January 21, 2020
I'm going to briefly review each story individually. The stories included in my edition, with this cover, are not all the same as those listed in the description here on Goodreads.
“Voices of Time” – 5 stars
I don’t know why exactly, but I was blown away by this story. I found it the most difficult to follow in the whole collection, and I think that is what made the story so great: it leaves a lot of detail for the reader to fill in. Ballard sets the scene; the reader realizes the reality, assuming the story “works” for a given reader. It worked for me. This story has it all: obscure references to a past WW3; genetic mutation from nuclear radiation, resulting in awesome and creepy creatures; an eerie disease threatening the human species; an unsettling, mysterious ending to a space mission; a limited, teasing form of contact with aliens; and general metaphysical ball-tripping related (in my opinion) to the incomprehensible nature of time and the insubstantiality of the physical world, at least from the perspective of an insuperably human mind.
“The Sound-Sweep” – 2 stars
This story was far too long for what it was. The concept was kind of cool—a near future where “ultrasonic music” has rendered audible music obsolete and where people have discovered that sound leaves an annoying residue which must be “swept” away—but Ballard asks far too much of the reader in terms of caring about characters that no one in their right mind would care about. To that extent, the story exposes a prominent weakness of Ballard’s: character development.
“The Overloaded Man” – 4 stars
A pretty awesome story about the contingency of meaning, reminiscent of Plato's cave, but in reverse(?). A man methodically disassociates his understanding of objects in the visible world, effectively turning everyday objects like chairs and houses into abstract shapes and colours. To be clear—this guy is just losing his shit . . . . . the only thing he wants to associate with is the thought of a young, supple female. With respect to everything else, he’s content to clear his mind of comprehension, to simply view the world: view, not understand. Everything mends together, and the man falls into a sort of trance, euphorically perceiving a wonderful scene of, well, nothing: the noumenon, if you will. Ahh, the ineluctable modality of the visible: not only is vision merely a 'mode' of experience because other senses are lacking, but also because the mind cannot form a concrete, sensible perception of its surroundings without the subject's innate and learned knowledge about the nature of that which is viewed.
“Thirteen to Centaurus” – 4 stars
An unsettling story—I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would sign up for this study and subject his or her offspring to such a circumscribed life of utter naivety. Nonetheless, I have to back Ballard here because he gives us a sci-fi story which breaks away from the mainstream sci-fi bandwagon in which space travel is a foregone conclusion. The government has an interesting project here, with foreseeable benefits, but, still, I really can’t understand how Ballard could conceive of such a study ever flying—yeah, so the original subjects agreed to it . . . . . but signing your and your progeny’s lives away? It’s like agreeing to be a slave—where's the rightful honour? It's abominable. Anyway, it reminded me of life in the vaults in Fallout, but at least that shit was sensible.
“The Garden of Time” – 3 stars
A decent little fairy tale about a husband and wife who live on the edge of time—perhaps it’s more accurate to say beyond time, but that ignores the fact that time does catch up with them in the end—putting off the inevitable.
“The Cage of Sand” – 3 stars
So there’s this guy who designed a city for Mars and couldn’t face his disillusionment; this woman whose husband's coffin is a one-man rocket revolving around the earth along with other unlucky space pioneers (why not take them down—you can't convince me it's not worth the cost); and a failed astronaut. And they all saw the immense potential of space travel . . . . . but it just didn’t pan out. So they’re all living like hooligans near the old launch site in Florida, So why won’t you dumbasses leave? Ballard psychology—lol. Honestly I really didn’t like Ballard’s delivery, found the characters hard to care about, and their situations basically silly, but I have to hand it to Ballard--the ideas are there, and they’re pretty damn commendable.
“The Watch-Towers” – 4 stars
This is strange one. I like it. What is this city? Who occupies the Towers? Why are they watching, what do they want, who is funding them and why? I guess these are all versions of the same question. None of the plebs seems to know, and they're scared. Rightly so: whoever—whatever—it is up in those Towers, they have some, like, “The-Hanging-Stranger”-by-PKD-like powers, which is damn frightening. This setting also reminds me of 1984—maybe a society progressing to an even more extreme, 1984-like state. First the 'overlords' watch, intimidate, then assimilate? I mean . . . . . but now the Watch-Towers aren’t even seen, can't even be feared, acknowledged—people are free to act in accordance with their preferences as if they weren’t being watched, studied, judged. What is the meaning of this!
“Chronopolis” – 4 stars
Ok I’m sorry but this could almost be 3 stars for me, even though I’m certain the exact same story could’ve been conveyed to me in 5-star fashion. That is to say that I’m often not the biggest fan of Ballard’s execution, if that’s not clear yet. But damn—another sick thought experiment. What if clocks are outlawed? Why? What if cities became so overpopulated that the only way to avoid unutterable congestion were to schedule everyone’s daily functions for them, handing down authoritative timetables on the basis of social rank—I mean that would solve the problem right? No one would bump into one another, we’d all be in the right place at the right time. But what if we wanted to go somewhere else, do something else, plan for ourselves? Well then I guess we can’t count hours, minutes, seconds anymore. Unless we go to jail. Whew. Makes sense?
“Voices of Time” – 5 stars
I don’t know why exactly, but I was blown away by this story. I found it the most difficult to follow in the whole collection, and I think that is what made the story so great: it leaves a lot of detail for the reader to fill in. Ballard sets the scene; the reader realizes the reality, assuming the story “works” for a given reader. It worked for me. This story has it all: obscure references to a past WW3; genetic mutation from nuclear radiation, resulting in awesome and creepy creatures; an eerie disease threatening the human species; an unsettling, mysterious ending to a space mission; a limited, teasing form of contact with aliens; and general metaphysical ball-tripping related (in my opinion) to the incomprehensible nature of time and the insubstantiality of the physical world, at least from the perspective of an insuperably human mind.
“The Sound-Sweep” – 2 stars
This story was far too long for what it was. The concept was kind of cool—a near future where “ultrasonic music” has rendered audible music obsolete and where people have discovered that sound leaves an annoying residue which must be “swept” away—but Ballard asks far too much of the reader in terms of caring about characters that no one in their right mind would care about. To that extent, the story exposes a prominent weakness of Ballard’s: character development.
“The Overloaded Man” – 4 stars
A pretty awesome story about the contingency of meaning, reminiscent of Plato's cave, but in reverse(?). A man methodically disassociates his understanding of objects in the visible world, effectively turning everyday objects like chairs and houses into abstract shapes and colours. To be clear—this guy is just losing his shit . . . . . the only thing he wants to associate with is the thought of a young, supple female. With respect to everything else, he’s content to clear his mind of comprehension, to simply view the world: view, not understand. Everything mends together, and the man falls into a sort of trance, euphorically perceiving a wonderful scene of, well, nothing: the noumenon, if you will. Ahh, the ineluctable modality of the visible: not only is vision merely a 'mode' of experience because other senses are lacking, but also because the mind cannot form a concrete, sensible perception of its surroundings without the subject's innate and learned knowledge about the nature of that which is viewed.
“Thirteen to Centaurus” – 4 stars
An unsettling story—I can’t for the life of me understand why anyone would sign up for this study and subject his or her offspring to such a circumscribed life of utter naivety. Nonetheless, I have to back Ballard here because he gives us a sci-fi story which breaks away from the mainstream sci-fi bandwagon in which space travel is a foregone conclusion. The government has an interesting project here, with foreseeable benefits, but, still, I really can’t understand how Ballard could conceive of such a study ever flying—yeah, so the original subjects agreed to it . . . . . but signing your and your progeny’s lives away? It’s like agreeing to be a slave—where's the rightful honour? It's abominable. Anyway, it reminded me of life in the vaults in Fallout, but at least that shit was sensible.
“The Garden of Time” – 3 stars
A decent little fairy tale about a husband and wife who live on the edge of time—perhaps it’s more accurate to say beyond time, but that ignores the fact that time does catch up with them in the end—putting off the inevitable.
“The Cage of Sand” – 3 stars
So there’s this guy who designed a city for Mars and couldn’t face his disillusionment; this woman whose husband's coffin is a one-man rocket revolving around the earth along with other unlucky space pioneers (why not take them down—you can't convince me it's not worth the cost); and a failed astronaut. And they all saw the immense potential of space travel . . . . . but it just didn’t pan out. So they’re all living like hooligans near the old launch site in Florida, So why won’t you dumbasses leave? Ballard psychology—lol. Honestly I really didn’t like Ballard’s delivery, found the characters hard to care about, and their situations basically silly, but I have to hand it to Ballard--the ideas are there, and they’re pretty damn commendable.
“The Watch-Towers” – 4 stars
This is strange one. I like it. What is this city? Who occupies the Towers? Why are they watching, what do they want, who is funding them and why? I guess these are all versions of the same question. None of the plebs seems to know, and they're scared. Rightly so: whoever—whatever—it is up in those Towers, they have some, like, “The-Hanging-Stranger”-by-PKD-like powers, which is damn frightening. This setting also reminds me of 1984—maybe a society progressing to an even more extreme, 1984-like state. First the 'overlords' watch, intimidate, then assimilate? I mean . . . . . but now the Watch-Towers aren’t even seen, can't even be feared, acknowledged—people are free to act in accordance with their preferences as if they weren’t being watched, studied, judged. What is the meaning of this!
“Chronopolis” – 4 stars
Ok I’m sorry but this could almost be 3 stars for me, even though I’m certain the exact same story could’ve been conveyed to me in 5-star fashion. That is to say that I’m often not the biggest fan of Ballard’s execution, if that’s not clear yet. But damn—another sick thought experiment. What if clocks are outlawed? Why? What if cities became so overpopulated that the only way to avoid unutterable congestion were to schedule everyone’s daily functions for them, handing down authoritative timetables on the basis of social rank—I mean that would solve the problem right? No one would bump into one another, we’d all be in the right place at the right time. But what if we wanted to go somewhere else, do something else, plan for ourselves? Well then I guess we can’t count hours, minutes, seconds anymore. Unless we go to jail. Whew. Makes sense?
January 17, 2018
Recommended by my two favourite authors according to their own personal “best of” lists (Douglas Preston & Lincoln Child).
Incredible surrealist almost other-dimensional (but not quite) science fiction. Brilliantly written short stories that could not have come from another author. Almost painfully unique in their peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. Must be read to be fully understood really...and even then these stories will leave you wondering and questioning your own (or our own) reality. The underlying theme is “time” as the title suggests but there is so much more. I found the last story, “Chronopolis”, to be the closest one to a somewhat linear and accessible narrative (other than “Thirteen to Centaurus”).
FYI - this particular collection can be somewhat challenging to get your hands on as it appears to be out of print and regularly consistent publication. But not that difficult with the countless options online. Used or new copies are available in abundance at several online booksellers. Go for it and read if you dare. Your vocabulary will be enlightened...after being turned on it’s head. Have a dictionary handy.
Incredible surrealist almost other-dimensional (but not quite) science fiction. Brilliantly written short stories that could not have come from another author. Almost painfully unique in their peculiarities and idiosyncrasies. Must be read to be fully understood really...and even then these stories will leave you wondering and questioning your own (or our own) reality. The underlying theme is “time” as the title suggests but there is so much more. I found the last story, “Chronopolis”, to be the closest one to a somewhat linear and accessible narrative (other than “Thirteen to Centaurus”).
FYI - this particular collection can be somewhat challenging to get your hands on as it appears to be out of print and regularly consistent publication. But not that difficult with the countless options online. Used or new copies are available in abundance at several online booksellers. Go for it and read if you dare. Your vocabulary will be enlightened...after being turned on it’s head. Have a dictionary handy.
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November 2, 2022To be clear, the book info is wrong, this entry contains the short stories of
The voices of time
The sound-sweep
The overloaded man
Zone of terror
Manhole 69
The waiting grounds
The deep end
I especially came for "The voices of time", but after reading the book info, I checked out "The garden of time" as well. Can't really share the fab around the latter. But I do like "The voices of time", a gene-manipulating sci-fi fantasy, mythical thriller even. This writer is of the botanist type, compared to the war fans, car enthusiasts, and geographic geeks out there.
This writer is also an old man -- the personality which conveys through the writing.
"The voices of time" touches upon this subtlety, but "The garden of time" has an eagerness and almost hatred to evade the encroaching of the chaotic eternity -- and even went so far as to embody it through the commoners. It reads outdated as of today when even the zombies are out of trend (and why is that? We are all in this together -- in a Mandarin pop-phrase, "小丑竟是我自己").
The voices of time
The sound-sweep
The overloaded man
Zone of terror
Manhole 69
The waiting grounds
The deep end
I especially came for "The voices of time", but after reading the book info, I checked out "The garden of time" as well. Can't really share the fab around the latter. But I do like "The voices of time", a gene-manipulating sci-fi fantasy, mythical thriller even. This writer is of the botanist type, compared to the war fans, car enthusiasts, and geographic geeks out there.
This writer is also an old man -- the personality which conveys through the writing.
"The voices of time" touches upon this subtlety, but "The garden of time" has an eagerness and almost hatred to evade the encroaching of the chaotic eternity -- and even went so far as to embody it through the commoners. It reads outdated as of today when even the zombies are out of trend (and why is that? We are all in this together -- in a Mandarin pop-phrase, "小丑竟是我自己").
January 27, 2020
4.25/5 (collated rating: Good)
J. G. Ballard’s second short story collection, Voices of Time and Other Stories (1962), is only ever so slightly less brilliant than his first, Billenium (1962). The stories are often linked thematically: exploring post-apocalyptical landscapes, rituals in the face of death, urban alienation, mental fragmentation. Scientists test [...]
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
J. G. Ballard’s second short story collection, Voices of Time and Other Stories (1962), is only ever so slightly less brilliant than his first, Billenium (1962). The stories are often linked thematically: exploring post-apocalyptical landscapes, rituals in the face of death, urban alienation, mental fragmentation. Scientists test [...]
Full review: https://sciencefictionruminations.com...
February 18, 2018
More Ballard, more coincidences of name and spaces - what is his obsession with desolate landscapes and 1950s cars? This is a bewildering experiment in running out of time, both for the protagonist and the reader. I wonder if the voices in time are the readers yelling, 'No! What happened? I don't understand!'
The Ballard fascination begins to make sense... kind of.
The Ballard fascination begins to make sense... kind of.
May 28, 2024
There are some absolute gems in this collection of short stories, but there are also some that have lost its strength over time, I fear. The Garden of Time and The Voices of Time are simply wonderful, timeless stories that still feel fresh and relevant. Other two stories I find interesting are Thirteen to Centaurus and The Watch-Towers, both very balanced and to the point, but leaving you with dread and getting stuck in your head afterward. The rest of the stories felt undercooked with its simplistic point of views and loose narrative. I did find the writing to be dense, as I usually do with fiction written some time ago, especially science fiction. And that's not necessarily a bad thing.
December 16, 2019
there’s some really brilliant stuff in here - very few of the stories have aged at all, and ballard rarely hangs a story on speculative or dated science. wish he’d write a woman once in a while though.
September 15, 2017
Every so often I love to sit down and enjoy a collection of J. G. Ballard short stories, even if I have read them all before.
September 1, 2018
Good collection of short stories from Ballard, especially enjoyed the "The Sound Sweep"
"The Overloaded Man".
"The Overloaded Man".
March 23, 2021
Manhole 69 is an homage to Chekhov's "The Bet"
October 7, 2022
Ballard's early output establishes as a science fiction philosopher to be reckoned with. Full review: https://fakegeekboy.wordpress.com/202...
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November 30, 2022read for my pulp fiction class
October 17, 2023
Rating merely based on "The Voices of Time"
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